Sports and the Olympics
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Great Fiction & Nonfi ction Books
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Babar's Celesteville Games
By: Laurent de Brunhoff
Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Pre-Reader
Baseball from A to Z
By: Michael Spradlin
Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Beginning Reader
Comic illustrations effectively combine with a straightforward text to bring baseball terms to life. From A ("Ace. The best pitcher on the team...") to Z ("Strike Zone. To be in the strike zone, a pitch must be...") the alphabet is a device used to introduce all things baseball, likely to be appreciated by even young aficionados.
How to Train with a T. Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals
By: Michael Phelps, Alan Abrahamson | Illustrated by: Ward Jenkins
Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Pre-Reader
Olympics
By: B.G. Hennessy | Illustrated by: Michael Chesworth
Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Pre-Reader
Pelé: King of Soccer/El rey del fútbol
By: Monica Brown | Illustrated by: Rudy Gutiérrez
Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Beginning Reader
She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story
By: Audrey Vernick | Illustrated by: Don Tate
Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Beginning Reader
Effa Manley, born when jazz was new and sports were segregated, was passionate about fairness and baseball. She was to become the first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame along with players from the Negro Baseball League. Her life is presented in stylized illustration and clear text, for an intriguing portrait of a person and a time.
Sports! Sports! Sports! A Poetry Collection
By: Lee Bennett Hopkins | Illustrated by: Brian Floca
Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Beginning Reader
Can a poem capture the excitement, exhilaration, or anguish of defeat when playing sports? The poems here do all that and more! It's an easy-to-read collection that's illustrated with just the right light touch.
The Mud Flat Olympics
By: James Stevenson
Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Beginning Reader
The animals of Mud Flat decide to let the games begin in their unique version of Olympic competition. From the "Deepest Hole Contest" to the "River-Cross Freestyle," readers will chuckle with the furry Olympians.
Age Level: 6-9 years old
A Nation's Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis
By: Matt de la Peña | Illustrated by: Kadir Nelson
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
Joe Louis' boxing match against Max Schmeling in 1938 reverberated in the U.S. and through the world. Its drama is presented in rhythmic text and stunning illustrations.
A Picture Book of Jackie Robinson
By: David Adler | Illustrated by: Robert Casilla
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
A portrait of a true American sports hero, Jackie Robinson, who was the first African American to play on a major league baseball team.
A Picture Book of Jesse Owens
By: David Adler | Illustrated by: Robert Casilla
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
A Strong Right Arm: The Story of Mamie "Peanut" Johnson
By: Michelle Green | Illustrated by: Kadir Nelson
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
Ancient Greece and the Olympics (A Magic Treehouse Research Guide)
By: Mary Pope Osborne
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
Basketball Belles: How Two Teams & One Scrappy Player Put Women's Hoops on the Map
By: Sue Macy | Illustrated by: Heather Collins
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
Women and girls haven't always played basketball. In fact, it was a struggle to play while acting "lady-like" in the late 1800s. Readers will enjoy learning about Agnes Motley and the competition that launched women into basketball through vivid prose and lively illustration.
Bill Pickett: Rodeo-Ridin Cowboy
By: Andrea Pinkney, Brian Pinkney | Illustrated by: Brian Pinkney
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Beginning Reader
The most celebrated black cowboy was Bill Pickett, a fearless rodeo star with a knack for taming bulls that brought the crowds to their feet. The closing note in this book provides an overview of the history of rodeos and black cowboys.
Black Jack: The Ballad of Jack Johnson
By: Charles Smith | Illustrated by: Shane Evans
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
Arthur John Johnson became known as Black Jack, the world's first black heavyweight champion and one of the best known boxers of the 20th century. Readers meet him through a rhythmic text and bold illustrations that present a clever, hardworking, and confident man. The book is published just in time to commemorate the anniversary of historic fight, July 4, 1910.
Brothers at Bat: The True Story of an Amazing All-Brother Baseball Team
By: Audrey Vernick | Illustrated by: Steven Salerno
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
Capoeira: Game! Dance! Martial Art!
By: George Ancona
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
A trip to Brazil inspired this look at a unique sport called "capoeira." The result is a compelling journey into capoeira's history and its popularity around the world. The book begins with students at an academy in Oakland, California. Well-placed and -paced, full-color photographs chronicle this amazing activity.
Home-Run King
By: Patricia McKissack
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
There were always discoveries to be made in their grandmother's attic; and Gee always had a story to go along with it. On this visit, the cousins find an autographed baseball that leads to a story about the Negro Baseball League and its stars, Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige. Exciting, predictable, and well-paced, this is sure to appeal to children.
Hour of the Olympics
By: Mary Pope Osborne | Illustrated by: Sal Murdocca
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
How Georgie Radbourn Saved Baseball
By: David Shannon | Illustrated by: David Shannon
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
Mighty Jackie: The Strike-Out Queen
By: Marissa Moss | Illustrated by: C. F. Payne
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
Jackie loved to pitch baseball. Her long practices paid off when at 17-years old she pitched for the Chattanooga Lookouts in a demonstration game against the New York Yankees. Jackie struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig — and forever changed baseball's rules. The excitement of Jackie Mitchell's story is well-paced, illustrated with slightly exaggerated and altogether winning illustrations.
Mush! Sled Dogs of the Iditarod
By: Joe Funk
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
Silent Star: The Story of Deaf Major Leaguer William Hoy
By: Bill Wise | Illustrated by: Adam Gustavson
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
Swifter, Higher, Stronger: A Photographic History of the Summer Olympics
By: Sue Macy
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
Even though the ancient Greeks conceived the Olympics, it was a small Frenchman "with a shrill voice and a bushy mustache" who almost single-handedly brought the modern Olympics to life again. This revealing, clear, and handsome book provides an engaging and authoritative overview of the summer Olympics.
The Wrigley Riddle
By: David Kelly
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman
By: Kathleen Krull | Illustrated by: David Diaz
Age Level: 6-9 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
Wilma Rudolph not only overcame polio, she went on to become the first woman to win three Olympic gold medals in Rome in 1960. Semiabstract paintings convey her power and personality in this accessible picture book biography.
Age Level: 9-12 years old
We Are the Ship: The Story of the Negro League Baseball
By: Kadir Nelson, Nelson
Age Level: 9-12 years old | Reading Level: Independent Reader
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